Distribution pattern of terrestrial vascular plants and their conservation in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Feng Liu, Zhiyuan Liang, Jie Li, Feiling Yang, Tao Deng, Hang Sun, Jinming Hu
Abstract
<p indent="0mm">Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is rich in vascular plants and is characterized by numerous endangered, endemic species, and its protection is of vital value to maintaining regional bio-ecological security. However, due to historical reasons, the conservation efficiency of the established protected areas for regional vascular plants is low. It is urgent to carry out research on the optimization of the protected areas system in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for the protection of vascular plants to improve their conservation efficiency. Therefore, this study revealed the distribution pattern of vascular plant diversity in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, identified hotspots, conservation priority areas and conservation gaps, and evaluated conservation efficiency of vascular plants in established protected areas and conservation priority areas, to propose an optimization strategy for vascular plant conservation in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results showed that: (i) the overall distribution pattern of vascular plant diversity decreased from southeast to northwest, and the hotspots were mainly distributed in the Hengduan Mountains and the Eastern Himalayas. (ii) The 16 priority conservation areas were mainly located in the eastern, southeastern, southern and northwestern of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the conservation efficiency of vascular plants in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was over 97%. (iii) The conservation efficiency of vascular plants (7.32%) and their endangered (4.81%), endemic (8.28%) and narrow-ranged (0.98%) species in the established protected areas is very low, and only covers about 1/4 of the priority conservation area. There is an obvious conservation gap of vascular plants in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. (iv) The level I conservation gap identified in this study (only 6.5% of the total land area of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau) was used to optimize the protected areas system, which could effectively improve the protection of vascular plants in the existing protected areas. This study provides an important foundation for exploring the optimization of the established protected areas system for vascular plants’ conservation in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.